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PLOS iGEM 2017 – sign up now open!

PLOS is pleased to launch our third collaboration with iGEM to publish work from the 2017 Giant Jamboree

Two years on from our first visit to an iGEM Giant Jamboree, PLOS is excited to be returning to Boston this year. As with the last two years, we will be offering teams the opportunity to publish their research outcomes with us for inclusion in the PLOS iGEM 2017 Collection, and, following on from the success of our Realtime Peer Review Jamboree earlier this year, hosted by PLOS on the Breezio platform, we will be revisiting the experiment in open, realtime community review.

Inspired by Biotreks, a synthetic biology journal for high schoolers, the Realtime Peer Review Jamboree was a live online event where authors and reviewers could comment and discuss iGEM team’s submissions in real time, responding to questions and critiques in a constructive and positive environment. iGEM teams – at high school, undergrad and graduate level – had been able to use the platform to collaboratively author reports of their iGEM projects where they underwent checks by PLOS staff editors. During the event, numerous people, some associated with iGEM teams, some PLOS staffers and many who were just interested in synthetic biology and/or peer review, logged on to give feedback on the papers.

The first PLOS iGEM Realtime Peer Review Jamboree proved to be a great success in fostering open communication to improve scientific reporting. With citizens of 17 countries taking part and almost 400 comments on 21 submissions, it showed the global nature of science, and how providing an open platform and the correct tools, and by encouraging constructive and positive feedback and debate, open community review can be a great success. Whilst the comments and discussion may not constitute the rigour of full peer review, we believe that they will help the teams improve their papers, plus we truly hope it was a very positive experience for everyone who took part, especially for those for whom this was a first experience of peer review. The final outputs were included in the PLOS iGEM 2016 Collection.

We are looking to beat our numbers this year – we hope to see more submissions from iGEM teams, more people online for the event and more comments and discussions to improve the outputs of iGEM 2017. We’d love for you to be a part of this exciting project. Whether you’re an iGEM team member from 2016, an iGEM alum, a synthetic biology expert or enthusiast, or have a general interest in peer review, your input would be gratefully received.

1 comment

Thanks so much to PLoS for again providing undergraduate students this wonder-filled experience of engaging in the peer review process in real time! Last year’s event fostered a collegial spirit of helping one another to become better, more rigorous, researchers.